Joanna Coles told us she was "not going to muddle" with Cosmopolitan when she took over as editor in chief in September, but she clearly wasn't referring to staff changes.
Coles has reportedly sacked nine members of the magazine's team, including seven on the editorial side and two from the photo department. And while she's hired British GQ's Paul Solomons as creative director and Marie Claire's Joyce Chang as executive editor, a litany of other positions have yet to be filled.
The departures leave Jessica Knoll as the magazine's only current senior editor. When the two first met at a staff meeting in September, Coles joked, "Kate [White] told me you're a rock star. But Kate's gone, so it doesn't matter now."
Over the last several months, the desks at New York's glossy fashion titles have operated more like a game of musical chairs than anything else. The latest departure in a round of shuffling that started in August sees Elle's style director Kate Lanphear leaving her position. It's unclear where she's headed next.
The revolving doors started spinning when Sally Singer was ousted as editor in chief of T Magazine at the end of August. She's now back at Vogue as the digital creative director and was replaced by former WSJ. Magazine editor Deborah Needleman in late September. Needleman took WSJ.'s creative director Patrick Li and fashion features director Whitney Vargas with her when she made the jump.
This week it was announced that stylist Joe McKenna would join T Magazine as fashion director at large. W's Maura Egan has joined T as features editor. Meanwhile, Alix Browne, T's deputy design editor, will head to W Magazine as features director.
Back at The Wall Street Journal, Needleman's deputy editor Ruth Altchek was named editorial director of the paper's weekend Off Duty section and WSJ. in mid-October. Harper's Bazaar executive editor Kristina O'Neill was brought in as editor of the magazine. Two senior members of Bazaar's accessories team, Kate Davidson Hudson and Stefania Allen, left shortly after O'Neill, but not to join her at WSJ. Bazaar's features director Anamaria Wilson also left in October for a position as vice president of global corporate communications at Michael Kors.
Bazaar held onto and promoted three key staffers: longtime senior fashion market editor Joanna Hillman was promoted to style director, Nicole Fritton was named fashion market and accessories director, and Elisa Lipsky-Karasz became the magazine's features editor.
Brides executive editor Anne Fulenwider replaced Coles as editor in chief of Marie Claire. Her first big staff changes have been to promote Nina Garcia from fashion director to creative director and to hire Alex Gonzalez as artistic director. Fulenwider was herself replaced by Keija Minor, becoming the first black editor in chief of a Condé Nast title.
Speaking of Condé Nast employees, Eva Chen left her position as beauty and health director at Teen Vogue and was replaced by Glamour's senior beauty editor Elaine Welteroth.
Above: Joanna Coles. Below: Kate Lanphear.
